1990s ektachrome

memory fades
the bright inflorescences
like chemicals
in an old filmstock
but when you look away
it is there

years past now
your honey hair
in a 5 second exposure
becomes a nebula above
the cream precision
of your face

my iris is
perpetually open
in that moment
taking in
the suck of the tide
emptying estuaries

the bare wet
gelatine pavement
broken up with
the obscene work
of Mollusca disgorging fat noodles of sand
from slick burrows

her rising smile
exposing the bones
of a gull
and my apology
as I release the shutter